Gorillas

Today on NPR I heard a story about an attention researcher at Harvard Medical School. This fellow, Trafton Drew, tested how radiologists focus when they are looking for something specific.

Drew took, “a picture of a man in gorilla suit shaking his fist, and he superimposed that image on a series of slides that radiologists typically look at when they're searching for cancer. He then asked a bunch of radiologists to review the slides of lungs for cancerous nodules. He wanted to see if they would notice a gorilla the size of a matchbook glaring angrily at them from inside the slide.

But they didn't: 83 percent of the radiologists missed it, Drew says.”

I’m not surprised by this at all. We sometimes get patients who have not had a complete dental examination in years. They break a tooth, and then they want Dr. Urban to focus solely on that tooth. Dr. Urban always recommends a complete examination every six to twelve months to check out everything that is going on with your oral health. When Dr. Urban focuses on one tooth, that’s what he does, focus on one tooth. I wouldn’t be surprised if a tiny gorilla might be on the other side of the patient’s mouth and he wouldn’t see it. Why would he? The patient wanted him to focus on just the one tooth.

So don’t be that patient. Give us a call today for a complete dental examination and X-rays just in case you have a gorilla hiding out in your mouth.